Bistro

This is what I hope will turn out to be the story of "The Little Restaurant That Could" - a 2009 version of the children's story that is a metaphor for the American Dream. Swallow is the former Northern Liberties bistro that in late December reinvented itself in the economic downturn. Owners Jason and Cindy Caminos wisely saw that they had to retool in order to pull themselves up over the mountain. I call their concept a "mac-eria. " Essentially it is a pizzeria based on macaroni and cheese.

This is what I hope will turn out to be the story of "The Little Restaurant That Could" - a 2009 version of the children's story that is a metaphor for the American Dream. Swallow is the former Northern Liberties bistro that in late December reinvented itself in the economic downturn. Owners Jason and Cindy Caminos wisely saw that they had to retool in order to pull themselves up over the mountain. I call their concept a "mac-eria. " Essentially it is a pizzeria based on macaroni and cheese.

From the moody, palm-fringed dining room at Fork, you can view the catch that is Terence Feury, framed in the stainless steel of the open kitchen, dark bistro apron past the knee, shaven head glinting in the light from above. He's a trophy fish, an exceedingly big fish (time at Le Bernardin in New York, top chef jobs with various Ritz-Carltons and, most visibly, before its demise, the city's celebrated Striped Bass), suddenly, though ostensibly contentedly, aswim in a far, far littler pond.

For nine months, with his own two hands, Laurentiu Muras has been redoing the former Cafe Habana on 21st Street into a gastropub called Slate . Work was finished in December, says Muras, a Romanian-born longtime bartender at such Center City establishments as Valanni, Jack's Firehouse and El Vez. All he had to do was iron out staffing issues. The wrinkles are gone, Muras says, and Slate (102 S. 21st St., 215-568-6886) will open tomorrow. It'll be open daily at 5 p.m. Chef Eric Paraskevas, formerly chef de cuisine at Lolita, says they're aiming to be an inviting neighborhood place, with appetizers from $7 to $9, sandwiches from $10 to $12, and entrees from $18 to $21. Paraskevas' background at Lolita exposed him to Mexican food, but he doesn't want to pigeonhole his cuisine.

Darlene Boline Moseng, who did catering and private chef-ing, is into her third week of A La Maison (53 W. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, 484-412-8009), a rustic French BYOB in the Main Line storefront that was Jewel of India. Moseng, a graduate of the Restaurant School, is keeping it traditional on a blackboard menu - coq au vin, short ribs, steak frites (dinner entrees: $21 to $28). She's backed in the kitchen by Maurice deRamus (Zen in Northern Liberties, Kujaku on the Parkway), and Marabella's alumna Lori Sexton is running the front of the house.

It is an odd but fitting detail that a giant thermometer is affixed to the roof of this Newtown Square strip mall where, ordinarily, most buildings would have a clock. The architect, of course, had no idea that a future tenant - located directly beneath the device - would be serving a menu designed to stoke some heat. But with a name like Spice Indian Thai Bistro, you can bet that a well-curried meal in this stylish suburban newcomer will take the edge off a chilly Pennsylvania winter.

Brasserie Perrier, one of the landmarks on the Walnut Street restaurant row, has closed without notice. New Year's Eve was the finale, as staff learned that night. The bistro, which opened in January 1997 under Georges Perrier, received a slew of awards, including four stars from Mobil. Its closing had been inevitable. Co-owner Chris Scarduzio, who started as a sous chef and was elevated to partner in March 2004, said that based on the lease signed in 1996, the partnership was paying about $19 per square foot for rent at 1619 Walnut - about a third of current local rates.

This was the year of the mega-restaurant, the return of the French bistro, and the go-go days of the gastropub. The bacon was house-cured. The craft-beer lists became big. And women chefs, more than ever, made their mark on the city's kitchens. Cozy Philadelphia, long one of the country's best small-restaurant towns, found more than a few restaurateurs willing to gamble big on massive, multimillion-dollar projects from Center City to the Main Line. Georges Perrier and Chris Scarduzio presaged the still-growing luxury steak house boom with Table 31 in the new Comcast Center.

Where does a 6-foot-7 offensive tackle fit into the restaurant business? We may find out. Chef Matt Levin hung up his apron last week at Lacroix, the posh spot at the Rittenhouse Hotel, and he said he was planning a restaurant. Levin identifies Jon Runyan , the Eagles' iron man, as an investor in his bistro, to open next year. Runyan's agent Craig Kaplan confirms the talks. Levin and Runyan, who met in April when both judged Glen Macnow's Ultimate Cheesesteak Challenge on WIP-AM, are scouting locations and seem to favor a spot in Northern Liberties.

On a Tuesday evening, it can be subdued in the understated bistros and cafes that lay claim to the corners south of South Street where the western edge of Queen Village gives way to Bella Vista. But on one Tuesday last week, not all of them were in character. At tiny Salt and Pepper, at Sixth and Fitzwater, for one, the doors were wide open and health experts from as far away as Oslo were sipping a lovely BYO zinfandel and taking hacks at cheeses set out on the counter. One of the cafe's regulars, Henry Glick, had reserved the entire (20-plus-seat)